Prosecutors urge death for cop-killer Buntion

By Brian Rogers

Updated 09:01 p.m., Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that "career criminal" Carl Wayne Buntion should be sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Houston police officer more than 20 years ago.

"He said, 'If the police ever pull me over, I'm going to kill the officer,' because he wasn't going back to prison," Assistant District Attorney Lance Long told jurors in Buntion's capital murder retrial.

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, urged the jury to spare Buntion's life, saying his behavior in prison had been exemplary.

Long recited a litany of Buntion's convictions beginning in 1961, including assaults, burglaries and a sexual assault. The prosecutor contrasted the total time Buntion, 68, had served with the total duration of his sentences.

"Altogether, he was sentenced to 105 years in prison," Long said. "But he was out and able to shoot Jim Irby."

Sentence reversed

Buntion was eligible for a new punishment phase after an appeals court reversed the punishment because his original juries were not able to properly consider mitigation evidence, such as Buntion's difficult childhood with an abusive father, before sentencing him to die.

Irby was a motorcycle officer who pulled over a car in which Buntion was riding on June 27, 1990.

More than a dozen HPD officers and Irby's widow and children listened to Long's opening arguments. He described Buntion slipping out of the passenger door, slinking around the car and aiming across the trunk at Irby, who was on the other side of the vehicle.
He said Buntion shot the officer in the left temple, through his motorcycle helmet. Irby had pulled his weapon, but did not get a shot off.

Long said Buntion, then a career criminal in his late 40s wearing a cap that read, "Payback is a *****," stood over the officer's body and shot him twice more in the back. Defense lawyers, how¬ever, said all the shots were fired from the opposite side of the car.

Long said Buntion then went on a rampage, shooting into a car and striking a woman who had witnessed the shooting in the shoulder.
Buntion shot at another car, then at a security officer responding on foot to the sounds of shots. He fled to an office and was there alone when he was arrested without a fight.
One bullet remained in his gun.

'Not one single bad act'

His attorneys disagreed little with Long's narrative, but said Buntion should be spared.

"He's 68 years old," attorney Philip Scardino said of his client. "He's been on death row for 22 years, and not one single bad act."
Scardino argued there are many ways, even on death row, to commit violence against guards.

"Him?" the attorney said, pointing to the pale man with long white hair combed straight back. "Not one single bad act."
Prosecutors will have to prove several issues, including that Buntion will probably commit violent criminal acts and that he poses a continuing threat to society.

Scardino said Buntion is no longer dangerous.

The capital murder retrial, in state District Judge David Mendoza's court, is expected to take about three weeks.

Prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that "career criminal" Carl Wayne Buntion should be sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Houston police officer more than 20 years ago.

"He said, 'If the police ever pull me over, I'm going to kill the officer,' because he wasn't going back to prison," Assistant District Attorney Lance Long told jurors in Buntion's capital murder retrial.
Defense lawyers, meanwhile, urged the jury to spare Buntion's life, saying his behavior in prison had been exemplary.

Long recited a litany of Buntion's convictions beginning in 1961, including assaults, burglaries and a sexual assault. The prosecutor contrasted the total time Buntion, 68, had served with the total duration of his sentences.

"Altogether, he was sentenced to 105 years in prison," Long said. "But he was out and able to shoot Jim Irby."